Post by By Oloo on Sept 26, 2006 22:15:24 GMT 3
We Need MORE Donkeys!!
Onyango Oloo Interrogates the Eerie Assumptions of a 2 Party State in Kenya
First, former Kenyan Vice-President Musalia Mudavadi referred to ODM-K as one of the two main race horses in the Kenyan political landscape.
Yesterday, Raila Odinga, speaking in Kakamega, echoed Musalia’s casual arrogance by saying that FORD-Kenya was a donkey and that there was no space for a third force in Kenyan political contestations today.
I found Mudavadi’s and Raila’s comments not only startling, but also rather unfortunate- especially coming from Raila.
My age-mate Musalia I can forgive because for most of his political life he has been part of the status quo, rarely bothering to pick up the cudgels against tyranny and repression.
For Raila Odinga, one of Kenya’s most imprisoned politicians, it is almost unconscionable.
Why, Agwambo did you spend all those years in detention?
Why did you work so hard to help set up FORD and later FORD-Kenya, NDP, LDP and now ODM-K?
Surely it was not to corral Kenyan politics into a stifling two-horse race between a local Tweedledum and Tweedledee!
I thought all along, those of us who had to go to prison, detention, exile, operate underground, endure tear gas and police bullets, live with round the clock surveillance and so on were driven by a higher purpose and that one of the facets of that higher purpose was to increase and entrench political pluralism and greater democratic space.
Who would have foreseen the harbingers of a nation dominated by two cloned Kenyan political horses?
Multiparty democracy means simply that:
A multiplicity of political parties.
Currently there are over 70 parties (at least according to William Ruto who scribbled that data on a small sheet of paper that he passed to me on March 28, 2006 when were co-panelists at Ufungamano House dealing with theme of “Nurturing Alternative Leadership”.
Contrary to the smug assertions of the ODM-Kenya leaders, our country is craving for more choices on our political party menus.
Those of us who have socialist, anti-imperialist and other radical persuasions and inclinations can not, in honesty claim that either of the two mainstream contestants for political power represent, leave alone articulate our interests.
Our ideological convictions are not contained in the respective ELECTORAL platforms of NARC-Kenya or ODM-Kenya.
In the United States, progressive Americans know how confining is this notion of the lesser evil in the context of a two party state.
When one compares donkeys and horses, one ultimately comes to have a soft spot for the less glamorous no frills beast of burden.
Unlike the flashy farasi which makes headlines in the sports section of the newspaper for winning (by definition 99.9% race horses fail to win on the race course plunging hordes of hapless gamblers into bouts of criminal depression and endless sessions of weeping in their drinks) this or that derby; this or that steeplechase; this or that jackpot, the humble punda slogs on in the parts of the paper dealing with ordinary people like small farmers, water carriers and other rural and urban toilers. The cheaper donkey is easier to acquire and maintain than the Mercedes like race horse. Donkeys live for donkey years. In some parts of Kenya, at the end of their long lives donkeys still serve their keepers as an excellent source of protein at the dinner table- a delicacy some of my Turkana pals aver, should be added to the national cuisine after overcoming unscientific taboos about their culinary suitability…
Raila and Musalia should also remember that the donkey could be the tortoise which outfoxed the over-confident hare in that Aesopic fable.
Is There a Role for the Kenyan Left in 2007?
The other day I went to visit a certain friend of mine. When I got to their place I found other friends and as we prepared to sit down for lunch other friends joined us. We ate a lot of delicious Kenyan food, drank beer, juice, wine, whisky or whatever was our chosen poison. And we shot the breeze a lot. One thing we had in common is that we were all ardent democrats, reformers, leftists, progressives or whatever label you chose to pin on our asses. The other thing that united us was that we were all Kenyans who loved our country with a patriotic zeal that transcended Dr. Goebbels Mutua’s superficial wishy-wishy conformist “majivuno”. A couple among us were very high profile players on the Kenyan reform scene while some of us were anonymous activists from the cooler climes of canada who had held our own for several years in terms of grassroots organizing and militant mobilization.
Among the questions we asked ourselves were these:
• Are we going to sit back, our arms folded, as we watch NARC-Kenya and ODM-Kenya carve out the country between them?
• Who will be articulating the views, demands and aspirations of the common mwananchi when it comes to a new political dispensation?
• Is Another Kenya Possible?
• The ODM-K base is populated by downtrodden wananchi hankering for fundamental changes. The ODM-K top brass is headed by the likes of Kosgei and the very corrupt Ruto. Is there a way how we can insert our influence and our ideals within and across the ODM-K popular base while critically and democratically engaging the ODM-K top brass?
• Does the Kibaki led-NARC- Kenya have ONE redeeming feature?
• Do we have a platform, an ideological vision and a program of action to intervene proactively during the 2007 electoral campaign?
• Do we have enough cadres to jump-start our dream?
There are others- but you get the drift.
What were some of the answers we came up with?
I am sorry I cannot tell you.
My lips are ZIPPED.
Onyango Oloo
National Coordinator
Kenya Social Forum
Masandukuni Lane, Off Gitanga Road
Lavington.
P. O. Box 63125, 00619
Nairobi Kenya.
Tel. 254-020-3860745 or 254-020-3860746
Onyango Oloo Interrogates the Eerie Assumptions of a 2 Party State in Kenya
First, former Kenyan Vice-President Musalia Mudavadi referred to ODM-K as one of the two main race horses in the Kenyan political landscape.
Yesterday, Raila Odinga, speaking in Kakamega, echoed Musalia’s casual arrogance by saying that FORD-Kenya was a donkey and that there was no space for a third force in Kenyan political contestations today.
I found Mudavadi’s and Raila’s comments not only startling, but also rather unfortunate- especially coming from Raila.
My age-mate Musalia I can forgive because for most of his political life he has been part of the status quo, rarely bothering to pick up the cudgels against tyranny and repression.
For Raila Odinga, one of Kenya’s most imprisoned politicians, it is almost unconscionable.
Why, Agwambo did you spend all those years in detention?
Why did you work so hard to help set up FORD and later FORD-Kenya, NDP, LDP and now ODM-K?
Surely it was not to corral Kenyan politics into a stifling two-horse race between a local Tweedledum and Tweedledee!
I thought all along, those of us who had to go to prison, detention, exile, operate underground, endure tear gas and police bullets, live with round the clock surveillance and so on were driven by a higher purpose and that one of the facets of that higher purpose was to increase and entrench political pluralism and greater democratic space.
Who would have foreseen the harbingers of a nation dominated by two cloned Kenyan political horses?
Multiparty democracy means simply that:
A multiplicity of political parties.
Currently there are over 70 parties (at least according to William Ruto who scribbled that data on a small sheet of paper that he passed to me on March 28, 2006 when were co-panelists at Ufungamano House dealing with theme of “Nurturing Alternative Leadership”.
Contrary to the smug assertions of the ODM-Kenya leaders, our country is craving for more choices on our political party menus.
Those of us who have socialist, anti-imperialist and other radical persuasions and inclinations can not, in honesty claim that either of the two mainstream contestants for political power represent, leave alone articulate our interests.
Our ideological convictions are not contained in the respective ELECTORAL platforms of NARC-Kenya or ODM-Kenya.
In the United States, progressive Americans know how confining is this notion of the lesser evil in the context of a two party state.
When one compares donkeys and horses, one ultimately comes to have a soft spot for the less glamorous no frills beast of burden.
Unlike the flashy farasi which makes headlines in the sports section of the newspaper for winning (by definition 99.9% race horses fail to win on the race course plunging hordes of hapless gamblers into bouts of criminal depression and endless sessions of weeping in their drinks) this or that derby; this or that steeplechase; this or that jackpot, the humble punda slogs on in the parts of the paper dealing with ordinary people like small farmers, water carriers and other rural and urban toilers. The cheaper donkey is easier to acquire and maintain than the Mercedes like race horse. Donkeys live for donkey years. In some parts of Kenya, at the end of their long lives donkeys still serve their keepers as an excellent source of protein at the dinner table- a delicacy some of my Turkana pals aver, should be added to the national cuisine after overcoming unscientific taboos about their culinary suitability…
Raila and Musalia should also remember that the donkey could be the tortoise which outfoxed the over-confident hare in that Aesopic fable.
Is There a Role for the Kenyan Left in 2007?
The other day I went to visit a certain friend of mine. When I got to their place I found other friends and as we prepared to sit down for lunch other friends joined us. We ate a lot of delicious Kenyan food, drank beer, juice, wine, whisky or whatever was our chosen poison. And we shot the breeze a lot. One thing we had in common is that we were all ardent democrats, reformers, leftists, progressives or whatever label you chose to pin on our asses. The other thing that united us was that we were all Kenyans who loved our country with a patriotic zeal that transcended Dr. Goebbels Mutua’s superficial wishy-wishy conformist “majivuno”. A couple among us were very high profile players on the Kenyan reform scene while some of us were anonymous activists from the cooler climes of canada who had held our own for several years in terms of grassroots organizing and militant mobilization.
Among the questions we asked ourselves were these:
• Are we going to sit back, our arms folded, as we watch NARC-Kenya and ODM-Kenya carve out the country between them?
• Who will be articulating the views, demands and aspirations of the common mwananchi when it comes to a new political dispensation?
• Is Another Kenya Possible?
• The ODM-K base is populated by downtrodden wananchi hankering for fundamental changes. The ODM-K top brass is headed by the likes of Kosgei and the very corrupt Ruto. Is there a way how we can insert our influence and our ideals within and across the ODM-K popular base while critically and democratically engaging the ODM-K top brass?
• Does the Kibaki led-NARC- Kenya have ONE redeeming feature?
• Do we have a platform, an ideological vision and a program of action to intervene proactively during the 2007 electoral campaign?
• Do we have enough cadres to jump-start our dream?
There are others- but you get the drift.
What were some of the answers we came up with?
I am sorry I cannot tell you.
My lips are ZIPPED.
Onyango Oloo
National Coordinator
Kenya Social Forum
Masandukuni Lane, Off Gitanga Road
Lavington.
P. O. Box 63125, 00619
Nairobi Kenya.
Tel. 254-020-3860745 or 254-020-3860746